Random Thoughts about the Crisis Chronicles Online Library
Yesterday, I posted a whole lot of Plato in the Crisis Chronicles Online Library (http://library.crisischronicles.com). Today I've posted several poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay. Usually I post only one or two items a day, but once in a while I get on one of these multiple post binges. Often it's a matter of inspiration and available time. Other times it's very much intended and/or planned.
When I post a cluster of works in one day, it's usually work by dead (but still important) writers. The one or two posting a day rule generally applies if I'm using a contribution by a living poet or someone who's never appeared before in the library. Why? I want to highlight the living poet as much as I can. One of the most important functions of this library is to support, promote and applaud the living poet - especially those poets whose work I like best. Cleveland poet and publisher d.a. levy, who committed suicide in 1968, expressed displeasure at the thought that when he was gone folks would buy his poetry instead of supporting the living. To me, this is a very important consideration. Dead poets have all the support they need. Lord Byron and e.e. cummings aren't going to starve (or be forced to give up poetry for a "real" career) if we don't buy their work. Support the living while they're here.
Yet I'm also posting a heck of a lot of of work by dead folks in the library. Do Plato or Millay need support? Of course not. I guess there's always the risk that folks might sit around reading so much free work on the internet that they become disinclined to ever walk into a bookstore or actually pay anything for poetry. The proverbial question I heard as a kid comes to mind: why would anyone buy the cow if they can get the milk for free? But this assumes (I would say falsely) that the alleged cow is only good for milk.
I have good reasons for posting works by the dead. For one, I feel I'm supporting living poets as much by putting the work of dead poets online as I am by putting the work of the living online. How so? If I give away all the dead writers' work, you won't have to spend your money on it - and thus you'll have more to spend on the work of the living. If I post something older on the library (Plato's Dialogues, for example), it's always something I believe folks should read at some point in their lives. We should read Plato. Please do, if you've never done so. But if you have five dollars to spend on a book, don't buy Plato. Find his work online or in your local public library, and spend that five instead to support a living writer - it doesn't necessarily have to be a poet. I'm not saying buying a book by Plato is all bad - it is supporting the publishing industry, which you can say is ultimately good for living writers and books. But buying something by a living author is better still.
Then again, I do hawk the works of dead writers in my Amazon links. Is this hypocritical? I've wondered about that. As an Amazon associate I get 6% of whatever folks spend when they go through the links on my page. It's not a lot (I made $35 in December, and that was a good month) - but it's usually enough to cover the cost of hosting and memory for this site. Also, Amazon allows a lot of independent sellers to use their site - so when I do make an online book or music purchase I tend to make it from one of the independents on Amazon (I still get the 6%, and Amazon only gets a small percentage of what the independent seller makes). So you are, in a way, helping support the living (and this library) by buying books by the dead online (though I still prefer that you buy books by the living when possible - and encourage you to support your local independent bookseller).
Another consideration: a whole lot more people visit this library for (and comment on) works by dead authors than works by the living (though comments are a secondary consideration). For example, the most viewed item in the library last week was Plato's Crito, which I posted back in March. I find this incredible, considering all the great poetry by living authors I've posted in the past month - but it's so. I believe, however, that if people keep coming back to this library for the dead authors they know and respect (like Plato, Dickinson, Byron, Joyce, and Shakespeare), they are certain to happen upon some excellent writers they don't know, many of these local, who might not be so famous, but who very much ought to be read.
I have lots of great work by contemporary poets to share in the library. However, for the next week or so, as the the one-year anniversary of the Online Library approaches (18 June), I intend to fill in some gaps in the collection of older works. For example, I have nothing at all in the library by several of my favorite authors (William Faulkner and F. Scott Fitzgerald come to mind). So I'm going to add a bunch of dead authors' works in a big clump this week (and maybe next) - and then get back to more of a balance of old and new writers, with a slight emphasis on the new that will over time grow more and more pronounced.
At this moment, there are 560 items in the Online Library. By the one-year anniversary, I hope to have at least 600 - which I think is a good number to aim for each year, as it averages out to between one and two postings a day.
Anyway, thanks for stopping by and reading (and sometimes commenting). If you have any suggestions or recommendations, I'm glad to hear them. Bear in mind that I'm careful to add only (1) works that are in the public domain and not subject to copyright, and (2) works that the author and/or publisher have given me permission to include. I'm also regularly accepting submissions to the library from living writers. You can send them to jc@crisischronicles.com. Please know that I'm operating with a bit of a backlog - so don't be offended if I fail to respond to your submissions immediately. I promise to get to them as soon as possible (probably after I finish issue one of Fuck Poetry this month).
I might be forgetting something. If I am, I'll add it in the comments below, unless it's long enough to warrant another blog. For now, I bid you adieu, my friends.
Peace and poetry,
John
P.S. Here's an index of everything I've added to the library so far in June: http://library.crisischronicles.com/2009/06.aspx.
When I post a cluster of works in one day, it's usually work by dead (but still important) writers. The one or two posting a day rule generally applies if I'm using a contribution by a living poet or someone who's never appeared before in the library. Why? I want to highlight the living poet as much as I can. One of the most important functions of this library is to support, promote and applaud the living poet - especially those poets whose work I like best. Cleveland poet and publisher d.a. levy, who committed suicide in 1968, expressed displeasure at the thought that when he was gone folks would buy his poetry instead of supporting the living. To me, this is a very important consideration. Dead poets have all the support they need. Lord Byron and e.e. cummings aren't going to starve (or be forced to give up poetry for a "real" career) if we don't buy their work. Support the living while they're here.
Yet I'm also posting a heck of a lot of of work by dead folks in the library. Do Plato or Millay need support? Of course not. I guess there's always the risk that folks might sit around reading so much free work on the internet that they become disinclined to ever walk into a bookstore or actually pay anything for poetry. The proverbial question I heard as a kid comes to mind: why would anyone buy the cow if they can get the milk for free? But this assumes (I would say falsely) that the alleged cow is only good for milk.
I have good reasons for posting works by the dead. For one, I feel I'm supporting living poets as much by putting the work of dead poets online as I am by putting the work of the living online. How so? If I give away all the dead writers' work, you won't have to spend your money on it - and thus you'll have more to spend on the work of the living. If I post something older on the library (Plato's Dialogues, for example), it's always something I believe folks should read at some point in their lives. We should read Plato. Please do, if you've never done so. But if you have five dollars to spend on a book, don't buy Plato. Find his work online or in your local public library, and spend that five instead to support a living writer - it doesn't necessarily have to be a poet. I'm not saying buying a book by Plato is all bad - it is supporting the publishing industry, which you can say is ultimately good for living writers and books. But buying something by a living author is better still.
Then again, I do hawk the works of dead writers in my Amazon links. Is this hypocritical? I've wondered about that. As an Amazon associate I get 6% of whatever folks spend when they go through the links on my page. It's not a lot (I made $35 in December, and that was a good month) - but it's usually enough to cover the cost of hosting and memory for this site. Also, Amazon allows a lot of independent sellers to use their site - so when I do make an online book or music purchase I tend to make it from one of the independents on Amazon (I still get the 6%, and Amazon only gets a small percentage of what the independent seller makes). So you are, in a way, helping support the living (and this library) by buying books by the dead online (though I still prefer that you buy books by the living when possible - and encourage you to support your local independent bookseller).
Another consideration: a whole lot more people visit this library for (and comment on) works by dead authors than works by the living (though comments are a secondary consideration). For example, the most viewed item in the library last week was Plato's Crito, which I posted back in March. I find this incredible, considering all the great poetry by living authors I've posted in the past month - but it's so. I believe, however, that if people keep coming back to this library for the dead authors they know and respect (like Plato, Dickinson, Byron, Joyce, and Shakespeare), they are certain to happen upon some excellent writers they don't know, many of these local, who might not be so famous, but who very much ought to be read.
I have lots of great work by contemporary poets to share in the library. However, for the next week or so, as the the one-year anniversary of the Online Library approaches (18 June), I intend to fill in some gaps in the collection of older works. For example, I have nothing at all in the library by several of my favorite authors (William Faulkner and F. Scott Fitzgerald come to mind). So I'm going to add a bunch of dead authors' works in a big clump this week (and maybe next) - and then get back to more of a balance of old and new writers, with a slight emphasis on the new that will over time grow more and more pronounced.
At this moment, there are 560 items in the Online Library. By the one-year anniversary, I hope to have at least 600 - which I think is a good number to aim for each year, as it averages out to between one and two postings a day.
Anyway, thanks for stopping by and reading (and sometimes commenting). If you have any suggestions or recommendations, I'm glad to hear them. Bear in mind that I'm careful to add only (1) works that are in the public domain and not subject to copyright, and (2) works that the author and/or publisher have given me permission to include. I'm also regularly accepting submissions to the library from living writers. You can send them to jc@crisischronicles.com. Please know that I'm operating with a bit of a backlog - so don't be offended if I fail to respond to your submissions immediately. I promise to get to them as soon as possible (probably after I finish issue one of Fuck Poetry this month).
I might be forgetting something. If I am, I'll add it in the comments below, unless it's long enough to warrant another blog. For now, I bid you adieu, my friends.
Peace and poetry,
John
P.S. Here's an index of everything I've added to the library so far in June: http://library.crisischronicles.com/2009/06.aspx.
glad you're doing this. i think it's great.
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Thanks, Smith! It's good to know you feel that way.
And thanks for being one of my favorite contributors:
http://library.crisischronicles.com/categories/Smith%20(Steven%20B.).aspx
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Well.. I thought I had posted a comment here before but obviously not.
Anyway... The library offerings .. both living and dead have their places. I agree with Smith...
You obviously have to think for the long haul on this... that the Library will be viewed by a wider and wider audience the more extensive it becomes. The more people are aware it is here.
Not just as a resource for viewing by people on FB and MS but possibly college and high school students, general public, etc.
Having a wide variety of both classic and contemporary poets / writers is important. A reflection of society and its wide diversity.
And as you said hopefully drawing people in with the classics will encourage them to explore the rest of what you've made available.
Anyway, I enjoy it.. I haven't been over here as often as I would like lately... but still admire you for your dedication to making this collection a reality.
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Thanks, Chris! I've started getting messages from folks who I don't know from either Facebook or MySpace - always a pleasant surprise - regarding the library. Sometimes students, sometimes folks expressing appreciation or looking for more information about someone or something in the library, and sometimes even spammers....
There are still hundreds of older works I want to add - but hundreds of newer works as well. Lots of modern poets I like a lot aren't represented here (cummings, Jeffers, Ferlinghetti, Ginsberg, Ted Hughes and Frank O'Hara are examples). I'm working on getting permission to include at least a couple of pieces by each.
And then anything that was first published prior to 1923 in the U.S. is no longer under copyright - that's why we've got the early (bu not yet the later) works of folks like William Carlos Williams, Marianne Moore, H.D., and Ezra Pound online.
Older writers I respect, recommend and even love - but who do not yet appear in the library - range from John Dryden to Charles Dickens, Mark Twain to Kobayashi Issa. Sometimes I feel like a kid in the candy store. I just wish I had more time to devote to it.
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jes droppin in - I have nothing witty or wise to say
lady k waz here
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It's always good to see you.
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Here's someone else whose work I'm very happy to feature in the Library:
http://library.crisischronicles.com/categories/Smith%20(Kathy%20Ireland).aspx
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I do have one suggestion.. I think this would help people when they are searching in the library...
But when you post in the library you don't distinguish whether something is text or a video.. Mostly because I think when you started you were just posting text.. and started adding videos later.
I think it would be helpful to know which it is in the title... maybe in parenthesis or something. Because people may want to look for a particular video or look specifically for something in text... this would help them narrow things down.
Unless it comes up when they do an advanced search. Because like last night I was looking to see what you had of Ray's things in the Library and I had to look at each one to see if it was a video or not...because by what you had listed I couldn't tell till I opened it up.. he had only 4 things listed so no problem.. But if there was a category that had a lot in it it would save a lot of time in searching for something specific.
Anyway.. that's it.
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I've thought about that. It wasn't much of an issue for me till recently, for several reasons:
Videos were secondary for a while in the library, because I tended to treat them as blog material instead of library material. I added video of Collins, McNiece, Weems, Salinger, diPrima and others to the library at first only because I didn't have permission to use these poets' texts (if an authorized source uploads video to YouTube, he or she pretty much automatically grants permission for folks to use it). But now I've begun adding poetry videos to the library more than my regular blog, since library visitors have no easy way of knowing what's in the Crisis Blog, and (anyway) I like having all the poetry in one place. Now I see the videos and text as equally primary in the library.
One thing that drove your point home to me recently (before you even made it) is that after the last Lix and Kix I had all this video of Steven Smith reading poems - but the text of all the poems he read is already in the library. In order to add the videos, I'd have to add a "Video" appellation in the title to let folks know there's a difference between this and the text entry they might have already read. I considered adding his videos in the comments of his already posted poems - so text and video would be together in one convenient place. But this felt like burying the videos, and I felt they deserved to stand on their own.
I was leaning toward solving the problem by doing as you suggest. But going into each entry and adding "Video" is going to take a lot of time. Hopefully I can get it done before I add many more videos.
Thanks for the good suggestion!
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Two quick things as a response.
One: My suggestion is from the point of view of a user while yours is from the point of view of the archivist/site manager. People will come to your site not necessarily familiar with all the features and options that are there. And so redundancies are necessary to make things convenient sometimes. I think of a "card catalog" for a brick and mortar library... things are often cross referenced several different ways/ places for purposes of finding them. And I know you do do that too with search categories on each item.
But I was searching for items the way a user might.. not knowing all you know about what is in the site.. just clivking on a menu item and going from there.
two: Now of course would be the optimal time to tweek things... before you add more video, etc... easier to go back and do the ones you have than to wait and have tons more.
I think your idea of filing the Smith videos and text poems separately is a better idea. And identifying them as such... I think you are right they would be buried .. embedded in with the text of each poem. someone wouldn't think to look for them attached in that way if it's not been done with anything else.
And if people are anything like me they just launch themselves into the site and look for things as they go... I looked at the side bar and since "video" in listed in with names I wouldn't have found it or thought to find it there where it was.
So maybe pulling that out of the poet/ writer's list as a sub category would be better.. it would be easier to find. It would stand out that there is a separate video category.
You have to think to the future that you may have yet another category to add.. as new formats are available... Like maybe podcasts for example like VX does. S o I think you have to see how all that comes across to a visitor.
Anyway.. that's my nickle's worth.
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Thanks!
Speaking of various ways to search... if folks want to see what I've added to the Library so far in June, they can follow this link: http://library.crisischronicles.com/2009/06.aspx .
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Thanks for the explanation of what you do, as wellas how and why you do it. I think you provide a wonderful service, and I love your taste. I agree, let's support living writers. Great thinking!
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Thank you so much, Don!
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